Award-winning guest at luncheon

GUESTS at a literary luncheon organised by Woking-based Surrey Chambers of Commerce and sponsored by accountants Moore Stephens were given an insight into the formative years of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein last Thursday.

Award-winning journalist Con Coughlin, who has written about the Middle East for 20 years, introduced his book published earlier this year, Saddam The Secret Life. Con, who is executive editor of the Sunday Telegraph, reported on the Iran-Iraq and Gulf wars and was one of the first British journalists to enter Kuwait City after its liberation from Saddam’s forces.Con told those attending the lunch, held at Guildford’s Holiday Inn, that he supported the decision to invade Iraq and gave a brief outline of Saddam’s early years of poverty prior to initiating his ruthless rise to power.